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Evidence for Leyla Gobale (Somaliland)
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.699
Type Ethnography
Location Somaliland
Date 1931-01-01 - 1931-12-31
Rules 2x6, 8, or 12 board.
Four counters in each hole.
Play begins from a player's righthand hole and counters are sown clockwise. After this, a player may begin sowing from any hole in their row. When the final counter falls into an occupied hole, the counters in that hole are picked up and sowing continues. If the final counter falls into an empty hole, the turn ends; if this hole is in the player's own row, the contents of the opponent's hole are captured if they contain one, two, four, or more counters. If it contains three counters, one of the opponent's counters is taken and placed into the hole where sowing ended, so that each now has two counters. These holes cannot be sown from for the rest of the game and are owned by the player whose turn created them.
Play ends when one player can no longer play. The opponent then takes all of the counters in their own row, and each player takes the counters that have accumulated in their captured holes. The player with the most counters wins.
Content "5. leyla-gòbale.
Related to the Arabian manqala, and to similar games found over thee greater part of Africa and India.
Two parallel rows of 6, 8, or 12 holes are dug in the ground, and four balls of dry camel dung are dropped in each hole.
Each of the two players takes possession of one row. The first one to play takes the contents of the hole at the right end of his own row (A) then distributes one ball in each of the followin pits: B, C, D, E; then he picks up the contents of the hole in which he has dropped his last ball (E), and distributes them in F,G, H, IJ; he distributes the contents of J in K, L, A< B, C; those of C in D, E, F, G, H, I, those of I in J, K, L, A, B, C. As his last ball drops in an empty hole (in C), together with the one which lies opposite (in J), and hiss opponent starts playing.
Both players are henceforth free to start their turn at whichever hole they like, providing it belongs to their own row. When a player ends his turn in one of his opponent's holes he takes nother (abar, "famine"). When he ends it in one of his own holes, he looks at the opponent's hole which lies directly opposite; if the latter is empty he gets nothing (abar); if it contains 1, 2, 4, or more balls, he takes these, together with the one he has dropped last; but if it contains 3 balls, one of these is removed into the hole where his last ball dropped, so that each contains two balls; these two holes are now his 'ur, and any ball that drops into either of them cannot be touched until the end of the game, when they are taken by the owner of the 'ur.
When a player is unable to play, owing to the fact that all his holes are empty-with the possible exception of some 'ur which cannot be touched-his opponent can take all that remains in his own row, always excepting the contents of any 'ur which may belong to the first.
The object of the game is to secure the larger number of balls." Marin 1931: 506-507.
Confidence 100
Source Marin, G. 1931. Somali Games. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 61: 499-511.
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